Join the Movement

Make everyday Earth Day, starting today.

WOWEM

Women’s Open World Empowerment Movement

communication and community

The Foundation for Building Sustainable Communities is initiating a project focusing on gender equity and open source. The Women Open World Empowerment Movement (WOWEM) is a timely project addressing the needs of women in technology, with a focus on equity and empowerment.

The project’s initial focus is hearing from women in the field. The submissions will be compiled in a book and presented at the technology conference to be held in Peru. We look forward to your response and as well as a successful launch of the book.

The first phase won the United Nations World Summit Information Society Award (WSIS) for content and creativity.

Efforts are being made to relauch and create a book with the submissions of the women in the technology sector. Proposed date is August 16, 2010.

The editors are Lady Murrugarra and Stacy Gildenston.

Report from the UNited Nations in 2005:Department of Social Affairs, Statistics Department.

Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals,1990-2005

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

The Millennium Declaration resolves to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as basic human rights. The Declaration also maintains that giving women their fair share is the only way to effectively combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable. Progress towards this goal is assessed by measuring gender equality in three areas: education, employment and political decision-making.

How the indicators are calculated

Gender equality as a prerequisite to achieving the other MDGs

Throughout the world women play a critical role in national economic growth and development. Their contributions have a lasting impact on households and communities, and it is women who most directly influence family nutrition and the health and education of their children. Giving women equal rights and opportunities can only serve to enhance this contribution and to bring us closer to the goal of eliminating poverty, hunger and disease.

Bridging the gender gap in education, for example – especially at the secondary level – is essential to developing skills and competencies necessary to compete in a global economy and to enable women to participate fully in public life. Reducing gender inequality in the labour market will increase women’s economic security and contribute to economic development and growth. Furthermore, ensuring women’s equal right to property and access to resources is fundamental to the fight against poverty. The full participation of women at all levels of decision-making is a basic human right, one that is critical to peace and development.

In other words, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women is an effective strategy to ensure that the other Millennium Development Goals are achieved. Conversely, if women lack the education, influence and resources to care for their families and to fully participate in the development process, it is unlikely that the MDG targets can be met.

In assessing progress towards goal 3, it should be noted that the indicators used measure only certain aspects of reality (that is, gender equality in the spheres of education, work and political participation). True equality for women involves much more. Similarly, gender is a specific focus in three of the Millennium Development Goals – those concerning gender equality, maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS. However, governments and their partners must seriously and systematically consider the gender aspects of all the goals, or risk falling short of the mark.

Target 4. Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and to all levels of education no later than 2015

Gender equality in education

Gender equality indicators for education Progress towards equality in education is measured for all three levels of education – primary, secondary and tertiary – based on the ratio of girls’ gross enrolment ratio to boy’s gross enrolment ratio. Literacy among youth is monitored by the ratio of women’s to men’s literacy rates for the age group 15 to 24 years.

Education, especially for girls, has social and economic benefits for society as a whole. Educated women have greater wage earning potential and more opportunities to participate in public life. They tend to marry later and to have fewer and healthier children who are more likely to go to school. Education for girls is also an effective prevention weapon against HIV.

Seven out of 10 regions are close to parity in primary school enrolment

Gender equality in primary school enrolment has been nearly achieved in seven out of ten regions in the developing world and the CIS, with a ratio of girls’ to boys’ enrolment of 93 per cent or higher. Southern Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Western Asia lag behind, with ratios that remain low – from 85 to 89 girls per 100 boys – in spite of progress between 1990 and 2002. These regions will most likely miss the target of closing the gender gap by the end of 2005.

Table 1. Ratio of girls’ to boys’ enrolment at the primary school level (GER, gender parity index, 1990-2001
	Girls’ gross enrolment ratio divided by boys’ gross enrolment ratio (per 100)
Regions	1990/91	1998/99	2001/02
Developed regions	99	100	100
Commonwealth of Independent States, Europe	100	99	99
Commonwealth of Independent States, Asia	99	98	98
Northern Africa

Precycle

Think before you buy

By practicing precycle, you will minimize:

• waste
• energy
• resources
  

When you are buying something, ask yourself if you really need it. Is there too much packaging?  Not creating garbage is the surest way to reduce waste.

Water Stewardship

“We have a disturbing paradox in Canada when it comes to our freshwater,” says Bob Sandford, chair, Canadian Partnership Initiative of the UN Water for Life Decade. “On the one hand, Canadians appear to value water as a crucial natural resource and understand that conservation of this precious resource is critical. Yet unfortunately at the same time, they don’t seem to know how much water they use each day or where it comes from.”

The Canadian Water Attitudes Study indicates that Canadians believe they use an average of 66 litres of water per day, for drinking, showering, bathing, toilet flushing, laundry and dishwashing. In fact, they actually use five times more – with an actual consumption of about 329 litres per day. Canadians not only underestimate the amount of water they use, but their water habits actually worsened in 2009. For example, the length of showers taken by Canadians increased from 2008 to 2009. Canadians rank second only to the United States in terms of highest per capita water use in the developed world. In comparison, Europeans consume less than half of the water Canadians do.ⁱ

There are both serious financial and environmental implications to wasting water.

“While Canadians understand the value of water, they don’t think about its cost or the larger impact on the environment. Irresponsible and inefficient water use directly contributes to climate change. For example, running a tap for five minutes uses as much energy as leaving a 60-watt lightbulb burning for 14 hours,” ⁱⁱ says Sandford. “If water is our most important natural resource, as I believe it is, we need to start using it more responsibly and efficiently, for our country and for the planet.”

“Irresponsible use of water has environmental implications for today, but even more so, for tomorrow,” says John Coyne, vice president, legal and corporate affairs for Unilever Canada. “This study highlights the need for increased awareness about how Canadians use water. The inefficient use of water is a critical dialogue in which governments, NGO’s, business and individuals must engage. For our part, Unilever is committed to leading by example as we reduce our water footprint from operations and supply chain through to the consumer use of our products.”

“Freshwater is essential for human health and all life on earth, so it’s really ‘the’ cause for the ages,” said Shari Austin, vice president, corporate citizenship, RBC. “It’s important for people to understand the value and vulnerability of our water resources, which is why we undertook this survey. That’s also one of the reasons we created the RBC Blue Water Project, our grant program of $50 million over ten years to help protect our watersheds and ensure access to clean drinking water.”

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE POLL:

Additional Key Themes/Regional Trends

Pollutants and mass exports perceived as biggest threats to Canada’s freshwater supply

• Canadians believe the following to be the biggest threats to Canada’s freshwater supply: run-off pollutants from land to water (19 per cent); mass export of water to the US (17 per cent); illegal dumping of toxins (12 per cent); mismanagement of water by municipal, provincial and federal governments (12 per cent); global warming and climate change (eight per cent)

• Only six per cent of Canadians believe wasteful use of water by consumers to be a threat to Canada’s freshwater supply

Canadians’ concern for water equals concern for stability of financial markets

• Eighty-five per cent of Canadians say they are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about the stability of the financial markets; while 84 per cent of Canadians say the same about the long-term supply/quality of Canada’s freshwater

• More Quebecers are concerned about the long-term supply and quality of Canada’s freshwater (80 per cent) than the stability of the financial markets (72 per cent)

• Eighty-nine per cent of Canadians believe there is a growing freshwater crisis on the planet, and 66 per cent think that Canada is at risk of freshwater supply shortages

Canadians losing confidence in our water supply and safety

• Confidence that Canada has enough freshwater for the long term has declined by 11 points, from 81 per cent in 2008 to 70 per cent in 2009

• Canadians’ confidence in their region’s available water has declined, from 84 per cent in 2008 to 74 per cent in 2009

• Quebecers (58 per cent) have the least amount of confidence that Canada has enough freshwater to meet its long-term needs

• Quebecers (68 per cent) and Albertans (67 per cent) have the least amount of confidence that their region has enough freshwater to meet their needs

Attitudes toward water safety are changing

• Canadians’ confidence in the safety of Canada’s water supply has declined, from 81 per cent in 2008 to 72 per cent in 2009

• Quebecers (54 per cent) have the least confidence in the safety and quality of Canada’s water supply

• While most Canadians (68 per cent) still drink their tap water, only 4 in 10 (41 per cent) drink it directly from the tap without first filtering or boiling

• One-third of Canadians do not drink the tap water in their home

Attitudes toward conservation

• Ninety-five per cent of Canadians believe it is important to conserve freshwater on an ongoing basis

• Most people (86 per cent) believe they are making reasonable efforts to conserve freshwater

• Only 30 per cent believe that corporations, businesses and industry are making reasonable efforts to conserve freshwater

• Significantly more Canadians put effort into electricity conservation than water conservation (28 per cent versus 3 per cent)

• Only 40 per cent of the population knows how much they pay for water each month, versus 73 per cent who know what they pay for electricity

• Seventy-two per cent of homes in the Prairies say they have water metres; this compares to 39 per cent of Canadians in general

• Quebecers (63 per cent) are most likely to know that a bath uses more water than a 10-minute shower

• Albertans (90 per cent) are most likely to say that they are making reasonable efforts to conserve freshwater; Atlantic Canadians (83 per cent) are least likely to say this

About the Survey
The 2009 Canadian Water Attitudes Study included an online survey administered by Ipsos Reid from February 5 to 12, 2009. It included a sample of 2,165 adult Canadians from the general population across Canada. The results are considered accurate to within ± 2.2 per cent 19 times out of 20, of what the results would have been had the entire adult population in Canada been polled. The data were weighted by region, age and sex according to 2006 Census data.

About Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of the United Nations Water for Life Decade
The United Nations Water for Life Decade is a globally proclaimed decade for action on water quality and availability issues. While each country in the world will be focusing on its own water quality and availability issues within the larger context of the global fresh water situation, the Canadian initiative has been defined by a nation-wide public and private sector partnership aimed at identifying and responding to regional and national water issues. The United Nations Water for Life initiative in Canada exists to put Canadian water issues into a global context. The Canadian United Nations Water for Life partnership initiative is housed, and has its research home in the Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative at the University of Lethbridge.

For more information about the Canadian partnership initiative in support of the United Nations Water For Life Decade visit www.thinkwater.ca

References:

---

ⁱUnited Nations Environment Program, Division of Early Warning and Assessment Global Resource Information Database – Europe.
www.grid.unep.ch/product/publication/freshwater_europe/consumption.php. Accessed March 10, 2009.
ⁱⁱBenefits of Water Efficiency, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. www.epa.gov/watersense/water/benefits.htm. Accessed March 4, 2009.

Farming in Cuba

Farming Extension in Cuba from (foodforethought)

In Cuba, innovative approaches are used to bring scientific advances in the laboratory out to the field. The Inivit Center has created a program where researchers travel to farms to teach, and in turn learn from farmers. Farmers have devised impressive ways to deal with extreme climatic conditions that Cuba must face including periods of prolonged drought and the hurricane season. Dialogue between researchers and farmers is an important step for increased and more reliable agricultural production. To access the article, please click here.

Proposed Indian Policy for the right to food

India and the Right to Food (food fore thought)

The proposed Right to Food (Guarantee of Safety and Security) Act in India has been welcomed by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen as a “step in the right direction.” Some feel the act’s approach is too narrow to achieve the important, elusive goal of ensuring the right to food. The central question remains – is a broader strategy required? To access the article, please click here.

Farmers’ Market

The community Farmers’ Market celebration held at the Oshawa Centre was sponsored by the OPUC

September 2, 2009

By Katie Strachan
The Oshawa Express

Joan Kerr, director general of the Foundation for Building Sustainable Communities displays a piece of recycled paper she made using pulp, water and leaves from her home garden.

“A lot of people are suffering through this economy. It’s nice to see people supporting local businesses. It’s great,” he says. The Kent Farm is still 100 per cent run by family, which is something Kent plans on maintaining for as long as he can.“It’ll always be a family affair,” he explains. In fact, Kent has journals, which were kept by his grandfathe and passed down through generations, which hold the history of the farm. The Oshawa farmers market takes place every Friday from May to October, states Charley Wellings-Gray, who is the assistant marketing director at the Oshawa Centre. Strawberries, raspberries, apples, corn, tomatoes, peppers, squash, flowers and baked goods can be seen from miles away when the market is in full force.“There are a bunch of community groups that are educating people about eating local produce,” Wellings- Gray explains of the recent celebration hosted at the farmers market. “There is face painting and Joan Kerr is teaching people how to make recycled paper.” Kerr is the director general for the Foundation for Building Sustainable Communities.“It’s really easy and fun,” she says of making the paper. Kerr was conducting her lessons in front of a backdrop of old appliances – ones that don’t use energy like those today do.“People are using all kinds of energy when you don’t need to,” she explains holding an old-fashioned eggbeater. “If people do just one or two of these things every year, the problem will be solved.”